Amid the coronavirus pandemic, it’s hard to find a college football storyline bigger than what’s going on at the moment.
Will we even have a 2020 college football season? Will there be fans if we do? How will recruiting be impacted? Will we have to push back National Signing Day? What about future player eligibility? Will the financial impact be too much to overcome?
Coronavirus will be at the center of college football storylines up until we kickoff the 2020 season (fingers crossed).
However, there’s only so much coronavirus that we can discuss before we drive ourselves crazy, if it’s not already too late.
That’s why I give props to Saturday Blitz, a Fansided college football website. Jake Mitchell wrote a story titled ‘College Football: 5 biggest storylines to follow during summer 2020,’ and did a nice job of talking about things other than the obvious – coronavirus.
Of course he had to make mention to the pandemic that is putting the season in jeopardy, but he touched on some of the storylines that would be front-page news if COVID-19 never came about.
In ranking his top-five storylines, how Jamie Newman will perform during his lone season at Georgia made the list.
Is Jamie Newman the Guy in Athens? — That’s what Mitchell ranked as the fourth biggest storyline heading into the 2020 season.
Right now there’s obviously no way of answering that, but after seeing Jake Fromm’s unexpected struggles in 2019, Georgia fans are hopeful that the offense can’t get any worse.
Newman is a dual-threat quarterback transfer from Wake Forest. He’s already receiving Heisman-hype and is considered one of college football’s top returning passers this year.
Mitchell wrote:
There’s never been a question about talent during Smart’s tenure in Athens. The thing that’s held the Bulldogs back has been an offense that stalls frequently and the lack of a quarterback who has the ability to make things happen on his own when these stalls occur. Fromm is a fine player, but he wasn’t that guy.
The one thing that will make this hard for Newman will be the shadow that hangs over him. Georgia already had the dynamic quarterback that could make things happen himself, and his name was Justin Fields. Smart chose Fromm, and Fields left for Ohio State.